Share this story

Apple quietly launched a new battery replacement program to help a "limited number" of MacBook Pro users. According to the program's webpage, some 13-inch MacBook Pros without Touch Bars may experience component failure that causes the built-in battery to swell. It's not a safety issue, but Apple will replace batteries on the affected laptops for free.

Further Reading

The company didn't provide details about which component inside these MacBook Pros could fail and cause the battery to expand. Affected laptops were manufactured between October 2016 and October 2017, and users can check to see if their device is eligible by inputting the device's serial number into the program's webpage. Older MacBook Pros and MacBook Pro models with Touch Bars shouldn't be affected.

If your device is eligible for the battery replacement program, you can either take your laptop to an Apple Authorized Service Provider or an Apple retail store to have it serviced. Authorized personnel may need to send the laptop to Apple's Repair Center for a few days, and you have the option to immediately send the device into the repair center yourself rather than going to a store first. Apple advises users to back up all data on their MacBook Pros and repair any other problems with the device before getting it serviced.

It's unclear how many MacBook Pros may be affected by this issue, but Apple clearly wants to help users by fixing the problem as quickly and painlessly as possible. This isn't the first time Apple has provided free-of-charge battery replacements for some of its devices: recently it launched a program to replace batteries in 42mm Apple Watch Series 2 models that either have swollen batteries or will not power on. The company also extended the warranty on first-generation Apple Watch models for an additional two years, providing battery replacements for free for up to three years after the original date of purchase.

But those who suffer from lackluster iPhone batteries still have to pay up. After Apple's slow-down fiasco at the end of 2017, the company began offering $29 discounted battery replacements for select iPhone models at the start of this year. While that's better than the $79 out-of-warranty price users would have had to pay to replace their iPhones' batteries previously, some still argue that the service should be offered for free for affected iPhones. Apple is offering the discounted iPhone battery replacement price through the end of this year.

51 Reader Comments

BTW- Expected wait times in queue for iPhone 6 batteries can be 6-8 weeks now (co-worker put in for one back in March, appointment says first week of May).

As for the 13" MBP battery, this is likely a supplier issue, and the battery will fail (safety feature is expansion, and it would also mean the bottom case separation). Seen this with previous models and battery issues. Best advice: make sure your data is backed up, as this isn't a 5 minute fix (Apple typically will replace the top case as the battery is glued/attached to it.---do not attempt your own fix as you can puncture the battery and that could mean a thermal event down the road...)

"But those who suffer from lackluster iPhone batteries still have to pay up. After Apple's slow-down fiasco at the end of 2017, the company began offering $29 discounted battery replacements for select iPhone models at the start of this year. While that's better than the $79 out-of-warranty price users would have had to pay to replace their iPhones' batteries previously, some still argue that the service should be offered for free for affected iPhones."

Why not make a phone that users can easily replace the batteries? Oh, wait,. Never mind. I forgot that such an idea is ridiculous because it poses an insurmountable engineering obstacle. And anyway, who wants such a thing? I mean, aren't we duty-bound as good, obedient industry servants to buy a new $900-phone every two years? Only a seditious Luddite would take seriously the idea of replaceable batteries that could save consumers money and decrease their dependency on manufacturers?

The company didn't provide details about which component inside these MacBook Pros could fail and cause the battery to expand. Affected laptops were manufactured between October 2016 and October 2017, and users can check to see if their device is eligible by inputting the device's serial number into the program's webpage.

Full Disclosure: I do work for Dell.

This seems wrong on its face. It's the battery. It wasnt manufactured correctly.

I do not know this for fact

I am drawing that conclusion from my experience of having seen this in Dell models over the years. This means a batch of batteries are bad, hence why the limited amount effected. And they know the model those effected batteries were installed in. This is their way of avoiding a product recall for the defective batteries, instead opting to fix the ones reported to them.

Edit to add: The poster above me about the XPS (and Precision) batteries SourceI wont comment on Apple's method of handling this situation.

Um, this makes no sense. If the battery is swelling it means some abnormal condition is causing it to swell up. Additionally, that means it will have pressures put on it by surrounding things that would not normally be.

How long until one swells enough to get pinched or poked by something and go off like a roman candle?

We had this happen with an older HP laptop at work - someone called from home their machine wouldn't sit flat. A few minutes of talking to them later they had the battery un-clipped (fortunately it was removable) and could put it out where it couldn't hurt anything while keeping the computer locked up securely until they came in to swap it for a working battery.

AND in the meantime since they could unplug the battery at home they could keep using the machine plugged in.

Why not make a phone that users can easily replace the batteries? Oh, wait,. Never mind. I forgot that such an idea is ridiculous because it poses an insurmountable engineering obstacle. And anyway, who wants such a thing? I mean, aren't we duty-bound as good, obedient industry servants to buy a new $900-phone every two years? Only a seditious Luddite would take seriously the idea of replaceable batteries that could save consumers money and decrease their dependency on manufacturers?

why use a small battery when you can double the size of the battery by removing the extra plastic housing?

I have yet to have a removable battery cover, that didn't end up breaking before the device went bad. (basically every remote control ever, every single cell phone with replaceable battery)

You are introducing points of failure. (plastic bits that are fragile), plus a lot of extra space for holding it all, at the cost of thickness. slap some glue and stick a battery twice the size in it's place and you are were we are today.

replaceable batteries, are smaller in size, capactiy, and introduce more breakage points to the device. Do you want a phone or a tape covered monstroity holding the covers on.

My NEC LaVie is ultra thin and lighter than a Macbook, but has a replaceable battery that is not glued in. You have to undo six screws on the base. I've done it a couple of times to do SSD and Wifi upgrades.

The other issue with Apple batteries is that they supply an under-size charger that can't fully power the laptop. Under heavy load the charger is supplemented by drawing power from the battery. The only reason appears to be in order to supply a slightly smaller charger, although I prefer the larger but flat one NEC offer because it's easier to pack.

"But those who suffer from lackluster iPhone batteries still have to pay up. After Apple's slow-down fiasco at the end of 2017, the company began offering $29 discounted battery replacements for select iPhone models at the start of this year. While that's better than the $79 out-of-warranty price users would have had to pay to replace their iPhones' batteries previously, some still argue that the service should be offered for free for affected iPhones."

Why not make a phone that users can easily replace the batteries? Oh, wait,. Never mind. I forgot that such an idea is ridiculous because it poses an insurmountable engineering obstacle. And anyway, who wants such a thing? I mean, aren't we duty-bound as good, obedient industry servants to buy a new $900-phone every two years? Only a seditious Luddite would take seriously the idea of replaceable batteries that could save consumers money and decrease their dependency on manufacturers?

These kind of recalls should send a user notification to come in if that behavior is noticed.

When the 6S went out with a bad batch of batteries made that September, it took some time for the issue to show up, and by then their software throttling for bad batteries was also out. They had a battery recall program, but I suspect a lot of people will only ever know their 6S got slower and the shutdowns went away, instead of it started out with a bad battery.

Seemed like a bill dodging move not to send a notification when they notice that behavior.

Why not make a phone that users can easily replace the batteries? Oh, wait,. Never mind. I forgot that such an idea is ridiculous because it poses an insurmountable engineering obstacle. And anyway, who wants such a thing? I mean, aren't we duty-bound as good, obedient industry servants to buy a new $900-phone every two years? Only a seditious Luddite would take seriously the idea of replaceable batteries that could save consumers money and decrease their dependency on manufacturers?

why use a small battery when you can double the size of the battery by removing the extra plastic housing?

Hyperbole? If the battery casing is 50% of the battery by volume you are doing something horribly wrong.

That being said internal doesn't necessarily mean it can't be replaced by the user. Dell XPS for example uses internal batteries and anyone handy enough to use a screw driver could replace it (or memory or SSD) themselves in about 15 minutes. I think that is a good compromise between design and utility. Internal battery isn't necessarily bad, covering everything in glue is which makes it difficult or dangerous for user to replace the battery is.

This is a widespread issue with Razer laptops, I wonder if the cell manufacturer is the same. Razer has washed their hands of the issue and will not even sell a replacement battery pack to the affected users.

Anecdotally, the ipad mini at the local Meijers (the ipads on display are kept under glass, so it's not abused or anything like that) has been swollen to the point the display has separated from the bottom and there is more than an inch gap. It's been like that for at least a week.

Swelling lithium batteries 99% of the time are caused by high humidity in the plant, and high moisture content in the chemistry. The other common issue is using the wrong voltage cutoffs for charge and/or discharge.

Why not make a phone that users can easily replace the batteries? Oh, wait,. Never mind. I forgot that such an idea is ridiculous because it poses an insurmountable engineering obstacle. And anyway, who wants such a thing? I mean, aren't we duty-bound as good, obedient industry servants to buy a new $900-phone every two years? Only a seditious Luddite would take seriously the idea of replaceable batteries that could save consumers money and decrease their dependency on manufacturers?

why use a small battery when you can double the size of the battery by removing the extra plastic housing?

I have yet to have a removable battery cover, that didn't end up breaking before the device went bad. (basically every remote control ever, every single cell phone with replaceable battery)

You are introducing points of failure. (plastic bits that are fragile), plus a lot of extra space for holding it all, at the cost of thickness. slap some glue and stick a battery twice the size in it's place and you are were we are today.

replaceable batteries, are smaller in size, capactiy, and introduce more breakage points to the device. Do you want a phone or a tape covered monstroity holding the covers on.

Give me a break1) What's the cost of replacing the broken cover. Ebay? How much does Apple and others charge for replacing a non-removable battery?2) "at the cost of thickness" Tell me why we need a phone so thin? So thin that you have people complaining about the phone being bendable. Galaxy S4 and S5 have replaceable batteries, were they thick phones?3) Why use a small battery when you can double the size of the battery by removing the extra plastic housing? - Did Apple increase the battery capacity by a lot then? Same for Samsung etc.

Why not make a phone that users can easily replace the batteries? Oh, wait,. Never mind. I forgot that such an idea is ridiculous because it poses an insurmountable engineering obstacle. And anyway, who wants such a thing? I mean, aren't we duty-bound as good, obedient industry servants to buy a new $900-phone every two years? Only a seditious Luddite would take seriously the idea of replaceable batteries that could save consumers money and decrease their dependency on manufacturers?

why use a small battery when you can double the size of the battery by removing the extra plastic housing?

I have yet to have a removable battery cover, that didn't end up breaking before the device went bad. (basically every remote control ever, every single cell phone with replaceable battery)

You are introducing points of failure. (plastic bits that are fragile), plus a lot of extra space for holding it all, at the cost of thickness. slap some glue and stick a battery twice the size in it's place and you are were we are today.

replaceable batteries, are smaller in size, capactiy, and introduce more breakage points to the device. Do you want a phone or a tape covered monstroity holding the covers on.

Give me a break1) What's the cost of replacing the broken cover. Ebay? How much does Apple and others charge for replacing a non-removable battery?2) "at the cost of thickness" Tell me why we need a phone so thin? So thin that you have people complaining about the phone being bendable. Galaxy S4 and S5 have replaceable batteries, were they thick phones?3) Why use a small battery when you can double the size of the battery by removing the extra plastic housing? - Did Apple increase the battery capacity by a lot then? Same for Samsung etc.

Apple is a single courageous manufacturer that only makes 4 models of phones. You can get about 40 others from 10 different manufacturers. Maybe some of then will cater to your needs.

This is actually much better than other brands. They usually only give 6 months of battery warranty (despite the laptop itself is covered for 1-3 years) . If you already past the warranty but battery bulging, you need to pay yourself.

Acer, Asus, Lenovo, Sony (now no longer in business) was all like that. Dunno with other brands like razer, gigabyte, etc.

I had a battery in a 2011 Macbook Pro swell on me. It did kind of seem like a safety issue. I didn't realize what was happening until I opened the case to replace the battery (its capacity was also greatly diminished), and saw that it was puffed out like a balloon, straining all the mounts. It had also put so much pressure on the trackpad that it pushed it out of alignment in the case, and it bent parts of the motherboard.

The Macbook didn't last much longer after that; eventually the mobo failed. Judging by external symptoms I didn't recognize until later, I think the battery must have been slowly swelling for a couple of years.

I was excited for a half second there, until I saw that it was only on 13" MBPs without the touch bar. I just got mine a couple months ago, and the battery life is not as good as I anticipated. Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll find an issue with the 13" MBPs with a touch bar.

Um, this makes no sense. If the battery is swelling it means some abnormal condition is causing it to swell up. Additionally, that means it will have pressures put on it by surrounding things that would not normally be.

How long until one swells enough to get pinched or poked by something and go off like a roman candle?

Protip: if you know nothing about battery chemistry, don't assume your other technical knowledge can fill in the gaps.

You're being downvoted because you're talking out of your ass. "Um, this makes no sense." Stated as if DUH of COURSE you're right, why wouldn't you be?

Um, this makes no sense. If the battery is swelling it means some abnormal condition is causing it to swell up. Additionally, that means it will have pressures put on it by surrounding things that would not normally be.

I came here to say the same thing. A swollen battery is ALWAYS a safety issue. If Macworld, of all places, is willing to say a single negative thing about any part of a Mac, there might be a nugget of truth to what they're saying.

I was excited for a half second there, until I saw that it was only on 13" MBPs without the touch bar. I just got mine a couple months ago, and the battery life is not as good as I anticipated. Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll find an issue with the 13" MBPs with a touch bar.

Considering yourself lucky if the manufacturer finds a problem with their goods is definitely not healthy for the consumers. That’s like hoping your Tesla will crash and burn, so you can join a mass lawsuit.

Um, this makes no sense. If the battery is swelling it means some abnormal condition is causing it to swell up. Additionally, that means it will have pressures put on it by surrounding things that would not normally be.

I came here to say the same thing. A swollen battery is ALWAYS a safety issue. If Macworld, of all places, is willing to say a single negative thing about any part of a Mac, there might be a nugget of truth to what they're saying.

This is actually much better than other brands. They usually only give 6 months of battery warranty (despite the laptop itself is covered for 1-3 years) . If you already past the warranty but battery bulging, you need to pay yourself.

Acer, Asus, Lenovo, Sony (now no longer in business) was all like that. Dunno with other brands like razer, gigabyte, etc.

Not sure if that's true. Two years ago, an Acer laptop had a battery that was wearing way too fast (35% wear after 40 cycles or so in 9 months). Got it replaced under warranty after a few emails with their customer service.

I was excited for a half second there, until I saw that it was only on 13" MBPs without the touch bar. I just got mine a couple months ago, and the battery life is not as good as I anticipated. Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll find an issue with the 13" MBPs with a touch bar.

Don't hold your breath. If that happens, they'll replace the battery with another one of exact same capacity and you'll be just as unhappy as you are now.

But those who suffer from lackluster iPhone batteries still have to pay up. After Apple's slow-down fiasco at the end of 2017, the company began offering $29 discounted battery replacements for select iPhone models at the start of this year.

Battery swelling is not the same as battery aging.

Battery swelling means that something has gone very wrong, chemically, with the battery and it really does need to be replaced ASAP.

Battery aging (the thing that causes iPhone throttling) is normal, not a safety concern at all, and doesn't really affect device functionality. Of course you have to pay some money to replace an old (not broken) component.

I actually had this issue happen on my 2015 13 inch Macbook Pro last month. Went into the store on Sunday, they took it and I had it repaired [for free] and back in my hand after having gone to Texas back in my hands in New York by Wednesday.

BTW- Expected wait times in queue for iPhone 6 batteries can be 6-8 weeks now (co-worker put in for one back in March, appointment says first week of May).

As for the 13" MBP battery, this is likely a supplier issue, and the battery will fail (safety feature is expansion, and it would also mean the bottom case separation). Seen this with previous models and battery issues. Best advice: make sure your data is backed up, as this isn't a 5 minute fix (Apple typically will replace the top case as the battery is glued/attached to it.---do not attempt your own fix as you can puncture the battery and that could mean a thermal event down the road...)

Just an FYI, Apple appears to be reserving some capacity for walk-in battery replacements, as I was able to get an old iPhone6 battery replaced in ~45 minutes recently, despite online appointment dates showing far in the future.

...The other issue with Apple batteries is that they supply an under-size charger that can't fully power the laptop. Under heavy load the charger is supplemented by drawing power from the battery. The only reason appears to be in order to supply a slightly smaller charger, although I prefer the larger but flat one NEC offer because it's easier to pack.

Sounds like a selling point to me. I rarely run my laptop at 100% load, so why would I want a charger that's big enough for me to sustain 100% load indefinitely? Give me the physically smaller charger every single day of the week.

why use a small battery when you can double the size of the battery by removing the extra plastic housing?

I have yet to have a removable battery cover, that didn't end up breaking before the device went bad. (basically every remote control ever, every single cell phone with replaceable battery)

You are introducing points of failure. (plastic bits that are fragile), plus a lot of extra space for holding it all, at the cost of thickness. slap some glue and stick a battery twice the size in it's place and you are were we are today.

replaceable batteries, are smaller in size, capactiy, and introduce more breakage points to the device. Do you want a phone or a tape covered monstroity holding the covers on.

I'm still using my Samsung Galaxy Nexus I got in 2012. One of the primary reasons is the fact that I can replace the battery (they sell for about $5.00 each). In six years of ownership the device still works and have yet to break the thin plastic back that I remove to replace or switch batteries.

I was excited for a half second there, until I saw that it was only on 13" MBPs without the touch bar. I just got mine a couple months ago, and the battery life is not as good as I anticipated. Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll find an issue with the 13" MBPs with a touch bar.

I had a surprising experience when I took my mid-2015 MacBook Pro in to repair a crackly left speaker. I hadn't even realized there was a battery problem (I'm almost always plugged in) until I got it back with not only the speaker replaced but also a replacement battery and part of the case. (Thank goodness I had AppleCare, in the end it needed a new motherboard as well! ) I guess I should have expected it because there were two other customers bringing in their older MacBook Pros in with swollen batteries. Bottom line: look carefully at you current MacBook Pro and be sure to look for any signs of swelling case, it might not be immediately obvious but can cause collateral damage unless repaired soon.

These kind of recalls should send a user notification to come in if that behavior is noticed.

When the 6S went out with a bad batch of batteries made that September, it took some time for the issue to show up, and by then their software throttling for bad batteries was also out. They had a battery recall program, but I suspect a lot of people will only ever know their 6S got slower and the shutdowns went away, instead of it started out with a bad battery.

Seemed like a bill dodging move not to send a notification when they notice that behavior.

Forgive me tipoo, but the batteries were fine. It's the SoC that draws too much power that the battery cannot sustain for the reasonable duration of the iphone. Remember, people with good batteries, as diagnosed by Apple's own testing software, had their phone throttled. GB had a barely year old iphone 7 throttled to 80%.

As batteries degrade you're suppose to lose battery life and not performance. The throttle patch was a cover up not a solution. At most a band-aid.

Here's some food for thought. There was a news piece on Apple making their own power delivery chips and dropping Dialog as a supplier; this was before the throttling was unmasked. Also, in a recent letter to Congress, Apple disclosed that the iphone 8/x have special hardware that fixes the slowdown. The iphone 6/6s/7 lack that and in the same letter, Apple claimed there is no "easy fix" for these. Faulty Dialog power delivery chips?

Forgive me tipoo, but the batteries were fine. It's the SoC that draws too much power that the battery cannot sustain for the reasonable duration of the iphone. Remember, people with good batteries, as diagnosed by Apple's own testing software, had their phone throttled. GB had a barely year old iphone 7 throttled to 80%.

That's hopelessly simplistic at best. Both of my parents have iPhone 6's, one is a plus, the other a vanilla 6. Neither are running in throttled mode.Conversely, a buddy of mine with a 6 did get his battery replaced cos his was was running in throttled mode. Same phone. It's not an expected thing. Some batteries are failing, others seem to be in a less of a hurry to fail.

And since I'm serving up anecdata:

My own device is a 6s. It actually just switched out to throttling two weeks ago, and I didn't even need to check the settings, cos it locked up, and after a reboot showed that I'd dropped from 40% charge to 1% charge. Mine is covered by the out-of-warranty repair, I just haven't yet had a free weekend to waste heading over to an Apple store, though I'm a little more motivated now. While I think Apple should have issued an honest recall for the 6s devices with failing batteries, I don't feel hard done by. I'll get a new battery for free, and most likely see another two plus years of solid battery life.

Why not make a phone that users can easily replace the batteries? Oh, wait,. Never mind. I forgot that such an idea is ridiculous because it poses an insurmountable engineering obstacle. And anyway, who wants such a thing? I mean, aren't we duty-bound as good, obedient industry servants to buy a new $900-phone every two years? Only a seditious Luddite would take seriously the idea of replaceable batteries that could save consumers money and decrease their dependency on manufacturers?

why use a small battery when you can double the size of the battery by removing the extra plastic housing?

I have yet to have a removable battery cover, that didn't end up breaking before the device went bad. (basically every remote control ever, every single cell phone with replaceable battery)

You are introducing points of failure. (plastic bits that are fragile), plus a lot of extra space for holding it all, at the cost of thickness. slap some glue and stick a battery twice the size in it's place and you are were we are today.

replaceable batteries, are smaller in size, capactiy, and introduce more breakage points to the device. Do you want a phone or a tape covered monstroity holding the covers on.

And Note 8 is 0.1mm thicker. I am sorry but you have no clue. There might be other reasons for using glued batteries but battery capacity is not one of them. Besides, many people might prefer a phone with no water-proofing but with replaceable battery (especially now that we keep our phones for much longer than we used to)

Why not make a phone that users can easily replace the batteries? Oh, wait,. Never mind. I forgot that such an idea is ridiculous because it poses an insurmountable engineering obstacle. And anyway, who wants such a thing? I mean, aren't we duty-bound as good, obedient industry servants to buy a new $900-phone every two years? Only a seditious Luddite would take seriously the idea of replaceable batteries that could save consumers money and decrease their dependency on manufacturers?

why use a small battery when you can double the size of the battery by removing the extra plastic housing?

I have yet to have a removable battery cover, that didn't end up breaking before the device went bad. (basically every remote control ever, every single cell phone with replaceable battery)

You are introducing points of failure. (plastic bits that are fragile), plus a lot of extra space for holding it all, at the cost of thickness. slap some glue and stick a battery twice the size in it's place and you are were we are today.

replaceable batteries, are smaller in size, capactiy, and introduce more breakage points to the device. Do you want a phone or a tape covered monstroity holding the covers on.

And Note 8 is 0.1mm thicker. I am sorry but you have no clue. There might be other reasons for using glued batteries but battery capacity is not one of them. Besides, many people might prefer a phone with no water-proofing but with replaceable battery (especially now that we keep our phones for much longer than we used to)

The "double" quote is of course non-factual hyperbole, but the only thing your argument proves is that Samsung decided to stuff other things into Note 8 where they used to stuff batteries. According to spec sheets, Note 8 weighs in at 190g vs Note 4's 176g, and is denser by about 5%. The very slight difference in capacity doesn't begin to explain the difference.

“But those who suffer from lackluster iPhone batteries still have to pay up. After Apple's slow-down fiasco at the end of 2017, the company began offering $29 discounted battery replacements for select iPhone models at the start of this year. While that's better than the $79 out-of-warranty price users would have had to pay to replace their iPhones' batteries previously, some still argue that the service should be offered for free for affected iPhones. Apple is offering the discounted iPhone battery replacement price through the end of this year.”

My iPhone didn’t swell because of a defective battery, so I’m not looking for a free replacement. What I do hold Apple accountable for is not coming forward sooner about their “solution.”

Why not make a phone that users can easily replace the batteries? Oh, wait,. Never mind. I forgot that such an idea is ridiculous because it poses an insurmountable engineering obstacle. And anyway, who wants such a thing? I mean, aren't we duty-bound as good, obedient industry servants to buy a new $900-phone every two years? Only a seditious Luddite would take seriously the idea of replaceable batteries that could save consumers money and decrease their dependency on manufacturers?

why use a small battery when you can double the size of the battery by removing the extra plastic housing?

I have yet to have a removable battery cover, that didn't end up breaking before the device went bad. (basically every remote control ever, every single cell phone with replaceable battery)

You are introducing points of failure. (plastic bits that are fragile), plus a lot of extra space for holding it all, at the cost of thickness. slap some glue and stick a battery twice the size in it's place and you are were we are today.

replaceable batteries, are smaller in size, capactiy, and introduce more breakage points to the device. Do you want a phone or a tape covered monstroity holding the covers on.

Since the current CPUs have Spectre like bugs, I decided to once again buy a battery for my Dell E6400. (souped up with two SSDs). Fifty bucks online. About 10 seconds to slap in the battery. About 8 hours play time since the processor is old.

Note the security gurus think Spectre like bugs will be around at least for two years.